Photo Credit: Amedeo Grassia
It’s like a tale of two different stories, like Charles Dickens wrote many, many years ago. This Flyers team while coached under Mike Yeo has completely done a 180 in just over a week since he is taking over at the helm, “We are trying to build something here, and that is confidence,” Yeo said before last night’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
So I pose this question, have the Flyers’ finally turned the corner?
Confidence appeared to be a key word before and after the game last night, and the Flyers appeared to be very confident last night in a 6-1 victory over the Devils. The Flyers appeared to be very engaged from the drop of the puck, and they were determined to right the ship after two bad games to the Devils earlier this season.
“I think you get rewarded when you’re playing the right way, and obviously coming home after those two wins we want to make it harder for them to come into this rink, knowing that next time anyone steps into this rink it’s going to be a hard night,” Cam Atkinson said following the game. “I think we took strides in that direction and it’s good.”
Breakouts, puck support-to include puck support from the Forwards, and a lack of energy were problems on a nightly basis under Alain Vigneault. Not so much under Yeo, as the Flyers are scoring at a clip of 4.4 goals per game, “Again, our mindset everyday is to continue to grow our game, continue building, and the confidence that we have is huge,” Mike Yeo said following the game.
Again everything is night and day from what it used to be under Vigneault, it’s early but there are a lot of positive signs that the team is just more confident under Yeo and Daryl Williams. For instance, Flyers had trouble forechecking consistently under Vigneault, but in the last five games under Yeo that hasn’t been a problem:
“I think that’s what we want to have as a big part of our game. We want to set it right from the start. We want to be a team that’s hard to play against. You look at the physicality that we brought to our forecheck. It’s not just about running around, you want to make sure that you finish your checks and make it hard on the opposing defensemen and invest in the game that way, but it’s about recovering pucks. Our first two goals were a pretty good example of that.” – Mike Yeo
Offensive defensemen, with the likes of Travis Sanheim after love being given the green light to pinch or jump offensively when the opportunity arises. Last night, Sanheim was activated quite often, and he benefited from such while tallying his first goal of the season by throwing the puck at the net, “I don’t think you can have success without your defense being part of the offense,” Yeo said. “What I liked about it tonight was that they weren’t forcing the issue, and you look at the offense that came from our blue-line tonight, a lot of it was literally from the blue-line, it’s not like they were forcing the issue up the ice. They were getting caught in bad positions and they were back-checking. If they are playing the game the right way, the game should be in front of them.”
“Yeah, a big part of our game is that we want to get back on the offense, that’s how we’re playing better defensively, working together as a group, transitioning quick into playing the opposite zone so I thought we did a good job of that tonight,” Travis Sanheim said.
All in all, the Flyers are finally beating teams they should beat like the Arizona Coyotes and the Devils, and they are smiling again which is good to see. They have much more to show to prove that they have turned the corner on their season, from Mike Yeo down. Yes, the Flyers look like a completely different team under Yeo, but I would suggest to temper your expectations on this team right now, and let’s see how the next few weeks go.
Morgan Frost Update:
Mike Yeo had this to say following the game on Morgan Frost:
“Obviously I thought he had a good start to the game and then I was told that due to COVID-19 protocols that he had to be removed from the game. That’s all that I have for you right now. I know that we will have more on him with his status tomorrow morning.”
The Flyers will practice today at noon, and we will have more information on this later.
